I'd never been to a "Smart & Final" before (they also go by the name "Cash & Carry" in some locals), but recently found out that there was one located near to me. It's sort of a strange cross between a warehouse store, a grocery, and a restarant supply place. They bill themselves as more of the later, and I did in fact see several chefs from local chains picking up random stuff they needed.
I went there specifically for packer cut brisket, which is hard to come by around here, but they had for $1.30/lb. They also had full pork butts, cryovacs ribs, and lots of other BBQ things (guess what I did on Sunday!).
Other interesting things I saw:
- lots of variety of pots and pans and so on at reasonable prices. Also, lots of LARGE sizes you wouldn't find in anything shy of a true restarant supply place.
- an "endcap" consisting of 25 bags of sugar and 1/2 gallon containers of red and yellow food coloring
- #10 can's of just about everything you can imagine
Not a place to pick up fresh, local, ingredients. But a great source of large quantities, industrial supplies, stuff for parties, and fairly low prices (from what I could tell).
Posted by dowdy at March 3, 2003 09:55 AM